Life of a Blogger: Camping

Life of a Blogger is a weekly feature hosted by Jessi of Novel Heartbeat. Each week, we share a little about ourselves and our real lives so we can get to know the people behind the blogs!

This week's topic is camping. I freaking love camping! I didn't do it as much as I would have liked last summer (I blame an extremely stressful move in June), but this summer is going to be different.

I'm really lucky that the mountains are less than a one hour drive from my house. Have I mentioned I love mountains! They are gorgeous! And I'm only minorly afraid of being eaten by a Grizzlie.


The only camping story I have (besides a drunk friend being convinced that the thunder outside was actually a giant bear) is when I was on a hike. We had stopped trailside for lunch and I forgot to zip up my backpack after removing my lunch. When I went to put my trash back in my bag, a ground squirrel jumped right out of my backpack and scared me half to death! I guess he was looking for my lunch as well!

Source

Review: The Riverman

Info:
Title: The Riverman
Author: Aaron Starmer
Series: The Riverman Trilogy #1
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: March 18, 2014
Source: I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
"To sell a book, you need a description on the back. So here's mine: My name is Fiona Loomis. I was born on August 11, 1977. I am recording this message on the morning of October 13, 1989. Today I am thirteen years old. Not a day older. Not a day younger."

Fiona Loomis is Alice, back from Wonderland. She is Lucy, returned from Narnia. She is Coraline, home from the Other World. She is the girl we read about in storybooks, but here's the difference: She is real.

Twelve-year-old Alistair Cleary is her neighbor in a town where everyone knows each other. One afternoon, Fiona shows up at Alistair's doorstep with a strange proposition. She wants him to write her biography. What begins as an odd vanity project gradually turns into a frightening glimpse into a clearly troubled mind. For Fiona tells Alistair a secret. In her basement there's a gateway and it leads to the magical world of Aquavania, the place where stories are born. In Aquavania, there's a creature called the Riverman and he's stealing the souls of children. Fiona's soul could be next.

Alistair has a choice. He can believe her, or he can believe something else...something even more terrifying.

Review:
This book left me unsure how I should feel about it. It wasn't what I expected, then it was, then it wasn't again and now I don't even know anymore. 

Here's what I do know:

This book has a bit of a retro feel. It's set in 1989, so I don't know if that counts as historical fiction or just retro. Either way, these were the days of floppy disks and duct taping a walkman to the handlebars of your bike.

I really wanted to know what was going on! Stramer had my attention and curiousity the entire way through. What was going on with Fiona? What was Aquavania? Who was the Riverman?

That book was dark for a middle grade. Maybe I'm just wimpy. But there were some pretty major themes going on for middle grade reader. Like missing children and child abuse.

I didn't like part of the ending. It was unnecessary and sad (probably).

Here's what I don't know:

What the heck happened with the ending!?! This book had one of those vague, I'm just going to leave you with unanswered questions. Like I actually turned the page to keep reading and all of a sudden he was thanking all the people. But what happened to Fiona? And Alistair? And Kyle? And Charlie? So many questions. I feel like I used to enjoy these vague endings, but currently I just feel a bit confused and deflated.

How I feel. I just don't know. I enjoyed most of the book, but the ending threw me sideways and now I just don't know.  I'm certainly harbouring some resentment.

EDIT: While looking at this one on Amazon, I realized it's part of the Riverman Trilogy. I thought it was a stand-alone and  I'm not sure how I feel about it.

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Take Control of Your TBR Pile - Goals

A couple weeks ago, I reorganized my bookshelves. I actually LOVE reorganizing my bookshelves, although they always need to be in some kind of order (90% of the time alphabetical). This time, I separated my read and unread books. It was terrible! I actually currently have more unread books than books I've finished. To be fair, I do tend to ruthlessly cull books I didn't love and also swap ARCs with fellow bloggers. Regardless, nobody needs as many unread books as I have!

Here's my TBR bookshelf in all it's shameful glory!

So when I saw Take Control of Your TBR Pile, hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer, I knew I was in! I need this!

Ok, here's the rules:

• Link-up! This is open to everyone. If you do not have a blog then link your Facebook or Goodreads account.
• Make a Goals/updates/Results post (can be combined)
• Beginning March 1st, 2014 and ending March 31, 2014 at midnight read books from your TBR pile ALL books must have been published before March 2014.
• Post a review to Goodreads, your blog or Facebook then link it to the Rafflecopter for an entry. (review only needs to be a short one)
• You can combine events, challenges etc.
• No novellas for this one peeps
• The rafflecopter will allow you to enter up to two books daily, so update as soon as you finish a book.
• Earn an extra entry for adding Take Control Button to your blog, or facebook (with link-back)
• Use hashtag #TakeControlTBR
• Rafflecopter will close on April 2, 2014 at midnight and a winner will be chosen. Open internationally as long as Book Depository or Barnes and Noble ship to you. Prize: New 2013 release. I will do pre-orders as well. (may request eBook copy)

I still have a couple of ARCs I need to read in March, so I'm not setting my goal too high. I'm realistically know I can get through 2. So like a champ,  I'm going to double that and set my goal at 4. Who doesn't love a challenge!

Life of a Blogger is a weekly feature hosted by Jessi of Novel Heartbeat. Each week, we share a little about ourselves and our real lives so we can get to know the people behind the blogs!

This week's topic is guilty pleasures. I have a few:

1. Candy and sweets. This is a big one. I love candy! But I'm trying to cut back a bit now that I'm older because all that candy  has resulted in a bit more weight than I want to carry around. But now and then, there's nothing enjoying a wide variety of candies and sweets!

Copyright by Moyan Brenn

2. Tea. I love tea. I drink a lot. I'm totally part of the loose leaf tea craze. At any given time, I have multiple varieties of tea in my cupboard (and probably at least one more in my locker at work).

Source

3. Buying books. My book shelves are overflowing. I honestly do not need any more books. I think I honest have more unread books than read ones (because I give lots away after reading them). So why do I keep buying books? I've gotten better on this front, but I really love the feeling of sliding a new book onto the shelf!

My bookshelf!

What are your guilty pleasures? I want to know!

Review: Emilie and the Sky World

Info:
Title: Emilie and the Hollow World
Author: Martha Wells
Series: Emilie #2
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Source: I received an ecopy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A Girl’s Own Adventure in the spirit of Jules Verne

When Emilie and Daniel arrive in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of the Marlendes, warns them that she’s observed something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. But as the Marlendes investigate further, they realize it’s a ship from another aetheric plane. It may be just a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister, but they will have to take an airship into the dangerous air currents to find out. 

Emilie joins the expedition and finds herself deep in personal entanglements, with an angry uncle, an interfering brother, and an estranged mother to worry about as well as a lost family of explorers, the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the sky world.

Review:
Emilie and the Sky World was a fun follow-up to Emilie and the Hollow World. I love the fun-filled. action-adventure feel of this series.

Emilie is a plucky, likeable young heroine. Her family troubles rear up in this book, with the re-emergence of dreadful Uncle Yeric and the introduction of her younger brother Efrain. However, Emilie doesn't let family issues get her down and brings her courage and quick thinking to another aether adventure.

In this adventure, we go up instead of down and the crew heads to the sky to investigate a disturbance in the aether. While the world is fairly different, the adventure follows a similar slant to the last. There are bad guys to defeat and foreign creatures to befriend. I enjoy the message in this series that even though people may be different (it this case very different!), we can still all get along and be friends.

I'm not sure if this book is officially classified as Young Adult or Middle Grade (I think Emilie is around 14), but it definitely has a Middle Grade feel to it that I really enjoy. There's no romance present, which I find really refreshing! The adventure is always at the forefront of the story, which I really enjoy.

The only slight negative I have is that the action was occasionally a bit hard to follow. With strange aether physics and multiple flying ships, it can get a touch hard to follow, but this was by no means a big problem.

Overall, I have really enjoyed Emilie's adventures so far and am excited for the next book to come out.

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Stacking The Shelves (5)

Stacking the Shelves is a meme by Tynga's Reviews to share the books you've recently acquired.

Over the past two weeks, I'm completely avoided Netgalley and requesting review books. I did get one surprise book for review, but I've been working at chipping away at my massive pile of review books rather than requesting anything new. 

For Review:

Rex Regis by L. E. Modesitt Jr. - Thanks to Tor for this surprise. I think this is book 8 in this series and I haven't had a chance to read the previous books, but hopefully soon!. 

Bought: 

Cress by Marissa Meyer - I finally got around to getting a finished copy. So good! Review.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Review: Tin Star

Info:
Title: Tin Star
Author: Cecil Castellucci
Series: Tin Star #1
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: February 25, 2014
Source: I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist's leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.

When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula's desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind. 

Review:
I absolutely loved the first 150 pages of this book. The world building was enjoyable and I really felt bad for the situation Tula finds herself in. I felt her hatred for Brother Blue deep down and I loved how she was able to carve out a life under less than ideal circumstances. Tula is definitely a survivor and loved watching her learn to adapt to dealing with aliens and life on a satellite.

The other aliens were enjoyable characters as well, especially Heckleck. For a scary bug-looking alien, I really did like him a lot in the end and his kindness towards Tula.

The last 80 pages went downhill. My main (but huge) complaint was that it felt like the author tried to cram some YA romance into the last 80 pages. It felt rushed and unnatural and weird and this book might have been a five star read if it wasn't for that! The whole thing with Reza was weird.

I know a lot of other reviews mention the lack of world building, but I actually didn't have any problems in this area. I felt like there were enough hints dropped as to how the universe got to it's current state and I didn't have any outstanding questions by the last page. And usually I'm a huge stickler for world building.

Overall, I really liked Tin Star, right up until an awkward romance was crammed into the last 80 pages. Honestly, the whole thing with Reza dropped this one from a 4.5 to a 3.5. I love this trend of YA space books!

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